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I use liquid rennet and the cheese recipes always say to mix the rennet with water. For example, "3/4 teaspoon of liquid rennet diluted in 1/4 cup cool, unchlorinated water". What is the purpose of mixing the rennet with water? Is this step necessary or can I just add the rennet to the milk without mixing?

Naomi

I think it's because liquid rennet is very very strong/consentrated & that it just mixes/dilutes more evenly if it's diluted than mixed in directly. I use liquid CHY-MAX Rennet & usually dilute the amount of rennet with about 10x the same amount of water.
Just remenber to use cold water, if it's above 24'C the rennet enzymes will degenerate.

Hope this helped a it.

That makes a lot of sense. It's also good to know why it's important to use cool water.

Naomi